Just Perfect: Singaporeans Lead the Way for Maximum IB Marks

Out of the 1,640 Singaporean students who sat for the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma examinations in November 2015, 48 got the perfect score. A total of 81 students around the world got the maximum IB marks.

More than 11,700 students from 139 countries also sat on their IB exams during the latter part of 2015, a 9 percent increase compared with 2014.

Singapore holds a 97.7% passing rate with an average total point score of 38.5, a slightly higher number if compared to the 30.98 global average.

Nevertheless, this is a slight dip if compared to the 57 IB top-scoring students among about 1,600 students in end-2014. In 2013, 43 out of the 1,400 students got the maximum IB marks.

The IB Diploma Program is currently being offered to twenty academic institutions in Singapore, including the School of the Arts and international schools.

Over 580,000 examination papers in almost 80 languages were administered by the Switzerland-based IB Organization for last year’s combined exam sessions – the highest turnout since the Diploma Program started in 1968.

Each year, the program conducts two rounds of exams during May and November. Most students from Singapore prefer to take the November exam session.

Among the 107 countries where the IB exams were conducted, Singapore ranked first with the most number of IB perfect scorers. Australia came in second, with 30 students who got top grades among the 2,160 IB diploma hopefuls there who took the November exam.

A total of 63,141 students received their IB diplomas in 2015, a 6.1 percent rise from 2014.

The International Baccalaureate is two-year intensive educational program which is now taught to more than 1.3 million students in about 4,500 schools in 147 countries. Around 500 schools in the Asia Pacific offer the Diploma Program.

IB students are required to be enrolled in six subjects and also take TOK (Theory of Knowledge), a course that combines philosophy, religion and logical reasoning. They are also expected to take part in CAS (Creativity, Action, Service), an art/music/community service-related activity for a minimum of 18 months as well as engage in research to produce a 4,000-word Extended Essay (EE).